Essay On Patient Labelling

Words: 567
Pages: 3

Labelling a patient with a mental health
Mental health professionals are always on toes to find the best and effective methods of handling and treating patients suffering from depression or mental illness. Labelling is one of the practices used in the diagnosis of psychological disorders. There are pros and cons associated with this method regarding patients. Labelling of patients enables psychologists to classify them into a correct category. That allows psychologists to identify, select and administer proper treatment to the particular patients. In this regard, the patient gets advantaged because he or she gets the medication that is deserved. Besides, labelling enables psychologists to monitor patient progress respect to the drugs administered. Also, labelling can make a patient get the required attention and assistance in society. For example, an Autistic child who is labelled is subject to receiving necessary provisions from teachers and fellow children in school.
Labelling assists patients understand themselves and the cause of their disease. Besides, it is a mechanism in which the patients communicate to other people on what is going on with their bodies.
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For instance, labelled patients get stigmatized. The stigmatization comes as a result of patients viewing themselves in negative way by judging themselves negatively. Labelling can also cause self-denial in society. Once a patient has been labelled, it is true that he or she remains with the label for the rest of their lives. Because of these, people in the society start treating them differently. For example if a person was labelled as ‘schizophrenia in remission’, the label still remains even after the person has been discharged and deemed sane. Since there is no real way to remove the labelling, the patient remains with the stigma and stress that results from the